Vengeance and Revelations Redux
by ribbed not ripped
Summary: A complete rewrite of my original fic, that went by the same title, sans the redux. ZAFT and EA fight one last battle in orbit over the moon. Shinn engages the Freedom in one last showdown. ShinnLunamaria pairing. Warning character death.


Disclaimer: Gundam Seed Destiny is the intellectual property of Mitsuo Fukuda, and Chiaki Morosawa, and they're welcome to it.

Silence pervaded in the cockpit of the Core Splendor. The venerable craft's second official pilot Lunamaria Hawke was having a serious case of pre-battle jitters. As she sat waiting for the order to launch, her mind began to wander.

Over the last year she, and the other soldiers of ZAFT, had fought hard against the Earth Alliance. They had won many victories, and had been dealt just as many defeats in the latter half of the war. And now just like it had been at the second of battle of Jachin Due 3 years ago, victory for either side was coming down to one final decisive battle.

ZAFT had marshaled a good portion of their forces into one large fleet. Said fleet was proceeding at a steady pace towards the Moon, and the last stronghold that the Earth Alliance had in outer space. With the last Mass Driver rendered inoperable by the pilots of the Minerva, the beleaguered space bound Natural forces had attempted a decisive strike against PLANT itself, in hopes of severing the serpent's head before they were beset upon by ZAFT.

The men and women of ZAFT fought bravely to defend their homeland, and they managed to beat back the offensive. Due to a run in with an Alliance taskforce the Minerva hadn't been able to arrive in time to lend assistance, but her crew was making up for that with their participation in this final strike. If ZAFT managed to pull off another victory, then hopefully the Supreme Council would be able to force the Alliance to back out of the war, lest they wished to be bombarded from orbit. If ZAFT failed then the Alliance would be able to complete their work on the new Mass Driver in India and launch enough troops into space to overwhelm the weakened ZAFT forces.

Of course the actual victory would be hard fought. The Alliance forces were cornered with nowhere to go. They were desperate, and they would be fighting with the desperation of cornered beasts. It also didn't help that the ZAFT fleet was going to be assaulting a fortified position, equipped with the largest Positron Reflector created to date.

Naturally, the Alliance forces weren't the only problem. Undoubtedly, the infamous Archangel would be making another appearance. They would be jumping into this battle again to prevent 'unnecessary casualties', but Lunamaria knew that they would also be gunning for the Minerva. The last time the Minerva and the Archangel had crossed blades, Shinn had torn the pink Mobile Suit belonging to Representative Athha to pieces with the Destiny Gundam's weaponry. Lunamaria shuddered remembering the anguished scream that reverberated over the open comm. immediately after the event. The legend itself, the Freedom Gundam, would be coming for Shinn. She knew it, and he most likely did as well.

Speaking of Shinn, she wondered what was going through his mind right now. Shinn wasn't the type to be intimidated by tales, and talk, but the pilot of the Freedom proved that he was an able and dangerous foe. He was the only one who had fought against Shinn and survived. Surely that fact would be affecting him. It was certainly affecting her. There was an extremely dangerous and determined foe coming for him. She knew it. If it was anyone else she wouldn't have given a third thought of concern. But she didn't know who would be walking away when Shinn came to blows with his foe. It scared her that she didn't know.

Lunamaria bit her lip. She opened a frequency to Shinn. His face appeared on the Core Splendor's 8-inch screen. His eyes were closed, and it appeared he was deep in concentration.

"Yes?"

"Shinn, it's me."

"I know. None of the other pilots are willing to talk to me."

"Can you open your eyes please?"

His eyes flickered open. Lunamaria shuddered again. Normally when those red orbs of his beheld her they contained affection, and friendship. But now, she couldn't see anything except for an intense anger that was barely contained. It was quite unnerving, the Shinn in the Destiny Gundam's cockpit was different than the quiet boy that she ate, and conversed with everyday. This duality scared her, and he knew it. It was no wonder that he kept those eyes closed when answering the comm.

The rest of the Minerva's new pilots, and many other fellow ZAFT pilots had described him a harbinger of death and destruction when he fought. She supposed it was true, but none of them really knew Shinn like she did. Many people avoided him completely, and his reputation certainly didn't help him.

Shinn's voice broke her chain of thought, "Luna what did you want?"

"Oh. Nothing really. You know that they'll be at this battle right?"

Something flashed through Shinn's eyes. "Yeah."

"It will be coming for you Shinn."

"The Freedom? It can try."

"Shinn please don't say that. That pilot is good. He's probably better than you are. Aren't you afraid?" She lowered her head as a stray tear bubbled of the corner of the eye.

"No. I can't be afraid, I'm not allowed. If I'm scared then I can't pilot at my full ability. If I'm not at 100 then I will let someone down again. And I will never allow myself to make that mistake again." His voice hardened with that last sentiment.

"Then please be careful ok?" Had Lunamaria been looking at that moment she would have seen that mask of hatred drop for the briefest of moments.

"I promise." She raised her head again, and smiled.

"Thank you." Several moments passed between the two young coordinators before Lunamaria opened her mouth again, "Shinn when this over, we should throw a party. We could get rip roaring drunk and remember everyone that couldn't be with us to celebrate."

"It's a little too early to be celebrating, but yes that does sound good to me."

Any further attempts at conversation were interrupted as the image of Meyrin popped up on the communication screens of both Mobile Suits.

As Meyrin rattled off the list of normal launch protocol, Shinn retreated into the recesses of his mind. He was touched that Luna cared enough to talk to him and attempt to comfort him. There weren't many people these days that would be willing to put that effort forward. That fact hurt him. He always tried to put up a brave front. He pretended that the strange looks that he got from most people after a battle didn't him. He tried to ignore the fact that stories of his battle lust scared his own allies as much as his enemies. He had been initially successful, but now he was faltering. The road had been so long, and right now he was so tired that he just wanted to rest for a little while. Vengeful Crusaders of Justice needed their rest too. Her concern had seemed to rejuvenate him, at least a little.

Truthfully he was scared to death of the Freedom. He had fought it on numerous occasions, and he was suitable impressed with the skills of the pilot. The Freedom's pilot was definitely on a completely different level than all of the other pilots that he had fought against. Admittedly, the prospect of facing the opponent that he had never been able to best excited some part of him, as well. Deep down inside somewhere there was something in him that reveled in the utter chaos and destructiveness that came with battle.

In his darkest, and most desperate moments the need to punish those he saw as wicked, and protect the things that he valued manifested itself as…seeming he wasn't sure what it was exactly. When things were at their worst, and he was at his most desperate, something inside of him snapped. The cornered and desperate beast saw the tangled web of battle with supreme clarity, and became even more dangerous.

Shinn had been convinced that he had been subconsciously refusing to surrender, but as he experienced more repeat incidents of this 'clarity,' he became convinced that there was something more to his ability to pull victory from the brink of defeat, than his bullheadedness. The last several times he had experienced this clarity, he had become keenly aware of his own blood rushing through his body, and the fact that he could hear it doing so, only further compounded the weirdness factor. Certainly this wasn't normal. He didn't really care what it was, it just perturbed him. Whatever it was it didn't matter, it was a tool to be used in his goals that was all that mattered.

"Destiny you are cleared for launch." Shinn steeled himself.

"Roger that. Destiny Gundam launching!"

Shinn felt himself being pressed into his seat by the g-forces, but he barely noticed. After the Destiny shot out of the Minerva's launch bay, Shinn eased it into formation with the rest of the mobile suits. All around him he saw a veritable swarm of mobile suits. Hundreds of ZAKUs, GOUFs, and ZAFT's newest MP mobile suit the GELGOOG were all around him.

A large wall-like force of Alliance mobile suits lay before the ZAFT assault force. Behind the suits the forms of approximately 30-odd Alliance cruisers could be barely made out. And even further behind the cruisers lay ZAFT's objective, covered in the pinkish-hued dome of a positron reflector.

Shinn peered at one of the Destiny's status screens, 900 meters to optimal firing range. He cracked his neck, and ran his eyes over the remaining status screens one last time, just to make sure nothing had changed in the last 3 minutes.

Lunamaria took a deep breath in, and exhaled. This was it. Another 500 meters and the last battle would be underway.

As the two opposing forces moved another 300 meters closer to each other, a confused voice crackled over the open comm.

"Is that new equipment on those cruisers?" Lunamaria magnified her view of the cruisers. Indeed they appeared to have been refitted with two dome-like saucers each, mounted on the top and bottom of the warships. Without warning the domes began to glow. They emitted an expanding concave shaped field of green energy. Both halves continued to grow until the edges of both fields overlapped and stopped, effectively sealing the cruisers in capsules of pure energy.

"The shield of Artemis? It can't be."

Before Lunamaria could add anything, there was a beep. She had entered optimal firing range. Almost immediately, the attack confirmation was broadcasted. She quickly engaged the targeting computer.

The targeting reticule slid over several Alliance suits, and turned red. Deploying the Blast Impulse's Firefly missile launchers, she fired off a cluster of guided missiles. All around her the various ZAFT mobile suits fired off their own opening salvos. As the firefly missiles unerringly impacted with all of their targets, the natural pilots returned fire.

Lunamaria nudged her left control stick, and the Impulse slid off to the side to avoid the blast of some beam weaponry. Numerous other suits that hadn't been able to dodge exploded around her. Next she deployed the Rail and Beam Cannons, and opened up with a full salvo.

As the neat battle formation broke up under the chaos of the ensuing battle, Shinn grabbed both of the Destiny's Flash-Edge 2 beam boomerangs and hurtled them at two Windams. The boomerangs sliced through the two mobile suits and returned to the Destiny Gundam's hands. With a grin of satisfaction he activated the Destiny's antiship sword, and engaged the Wings of Light.

With a battle cry, later he would hear whispering that it was much more reminiscent of a howl, he charged straight into a group four of Windams. The first pilot didn't even see him coming. Shinn drove the sword straight through the suit. As he withdrew the blade, Shinn slapped another Windam with the palm of the Destiny. As it made contact, he used the palm beam cannon to vaporize the cockpit. The third Windam managed to pull the trigger of its beam rifle. However its shot went wide, as Shinn grabbed the Mobile Suits arm and pushed it out of the way, before chopping the Windam in half. The pilot of the last Windam managed to fire off three shots. Shinn responded by using the Wings of Light to block every beam shot with the impenetrable barrier he had erected. Another battle cry came from his mouth as he unfolded the Wings, and charged the Windam. The clearly panicking pilot decided that Shinn was not someone he wanted to fight, so he turned his suit around and retreated. As the Windam flew away it was gunned down by a GELGOOG.

The proximity alert in his cockpit suddenly whined. Shinn braked and dodged to the right quickly. A huge beam blast passed over the Destiny Gundam, barely missing it. Shinn glanced in the direction the blast came from. The Alliance Cruisers were firing their weapons through their shields!

"Shit."

Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Minerva the radar man had noticed a new group of signals emerging from the edge of one of the screens at his station.

"Captain! We have over a dozen heat signatures entering the battle. Distance 900. Searching library. Confirmed! It's the Archangel, and the Eternal. They're being accompanied by a dozen Izumo class ships!"

Talia gritted her teeth. "As if the current situation wasn't enough. Where are they heading?"

"They seem to be heading for the middle of the battle. Captain! They're launching Mobile Suits. Two dozen Murasames confirmed! There's something else…" The radar man gasped. "It's the Freedom." Arthur made a noise halfway between a groan and a gasp.

Under orders from the ZAFT flagship, half of the various mobile suit squads were now punching through the Alliance Mobile Suits, and heading straight for cruisers in an attempt to destroy them before they closed closer with the ZAFT fleet, and chopped it to bits.

Lunamaria fired a full burst with her weapons against a Drake class. Predictably enough her salvo impacted against the shield with no effect. Before she could do anything else she came under attack from several Windams. Lunamaria was forced to brake off her attack off so she could fend off these new annoyances.

Shinn was not faring much better. In fact he hadn't even made it to the cruisers, as he was currently fighting it out with the Chaos Gundam. The Chaos had deployed it's gunbarrels in an attempt to box Shinn in. It hadn't worked. As Shinn danced around avoiding fire from multiple vectors he grabbed both Beam boomerangs from the Destiny's shoulders and hurtled them at one gunbarrel. One of the boomerangs was destroyed, but the other struck its target and returned to Shinn.

The Chaos' pilot closed in to melee range with Shinn, and drew his beam saber. Shinn harumped, pulled out his beam sword, and struck. The Chaos managed to block Shinn's strike with his own saber, and he positioned his remaining gunbarrel above the Destiny in an attempt to score a kill.

"You think that'll work on me bastard!" Shinn positioned his palm cannon and fired off a quick blast destroying the remote weapon. Pressing his advantage he began to viciously hammer at the Chaos with his word. The green Mobile Suit began to backpedal under Shinn's assault. The pilot managed to block one of Shinn's strikes with his shield. In an instant he pulled his mobile suit's other arm back, readying to stab his opponent through the cockpit. In response Shinn grabbed his remaining Flash-Edge, but instead of throwing it, he moved his mobile suit a half-meter to the right, just enough to dodge his opponent's strike. In a flash he lobbed off the Chaos' hand, moving quickly he swung the boomerang to the right, and cut off his opponent's shield arm. With the Chaos defenseless, he finished off the pilot quickly by gutting his mobile suit in the cockpit.

"Let's see how tough this Umbrella of Artemis is." Shinn grabbed the remains of the Chaos and shot the head off of a Windam that was passing by. Grabbing the headless suit with his Gundam's other hand, he flew towards the closest cruiser, and threw both mobile suits towards it. Shinn deployed his back mounted beam cannon and opened fire right before both suits made contact with the barrier. The beam drilled through both suits causing them to explode, and impacted against the barrier, with unsurprisingly no effect. SHinn quickly found out that the rest of his weapons had a similar effect.

Shinn cursed under his breath. "Dammit. I've got nothing that'll break through that barrier." As Shinn was pondering his situation, a purple GELGOOG flew past him, armed with what appeared to be a Windam Shield.

"What's he doing?" The pilot in question was flying towards the cruiser at full speed with the shield placed directly in front of the GELGOOG. As the GELGOOG flew closer, it sped up.

Shinn was shocked. "He's going to fry himself!" However, that did not happen. The shield parted the energy barrier, and the GELGOOG sailed in without any problems. Once inside barrier the Drake Class was as good as dead. The GELGOOG activated it's beam nanigata and cut off the bridge, and one of the emitters.

"Incredible." A distinctly female face appeared on his communication screen.

"Why are you just sitting there? I was expecting more from the Marauder of Panama." Shinn was caught off guard with nothing to say.

"Well, what are you waiting for? We still have a lot of work to do." Surprised with the bluntness of the pilot, Shinn merely stammered out a quick, "Yes ma'am."

Satisfied the GELGOOG pilot cut communications and attacked a nearby mobile armour. Shinn grabbed a shield that was floating near by, and flew towards a nearby Agamemnon Class ship.

Meanwhile, on the Gondwana the black uniformed ZAFT officers that were in charge of the ZAFT fleet were intently monitoring the battle situation.

"Things are looking grim." One of them said.

"I concur."

Another officer spoke up, "What's the status of the Archangel forces?"

"Sir, they're moving to engage the Mobile Suits that are fighting off the Alliance cruisers."

"CIC, what's the status of our remaining Mobile Suit forces?"

"20 of the remaining suits have been destroyed sir. Another 5 are returning to their ships due to damage. The rest are fighting off the remaining natural forces."

The officier rubbed her temples, "Damn, then they can't help out our soon to be beleaguered forces. What about the fleet?"

"Negative, we can't move it forward until the Mobile Suits, and Alliance cruisers have been dealt with."

"If we don't do something advance Mobile Suit forces will be caught between two enemies."

"Damn. There's no choice then. We need to deploy the GUNGNIR. Let's hope our other trump card is enough "

The remaining officers exchanged looks, before giving their affirmation.

"Inform the Gatsby and the Jamitov. Tell them to move forward, and engage the GUNGNIR after the Archangel fleet makes contact with our forces. The Gatsby will target the Alliance forces, and the Jamitov will be responsible for the Archangel forces. And for the love of Christmas make sure that the Mobile Suits are defending them. It'll do us no good if they're destroyed."

Two sleek Nazca class ships moved forward from the rear of the fleet's formation. The two ships had been refitted with what appeared to be scaled down versions of the Neutron Stampeder. The two Nazca classes halted and waited for further orders, after reaching their designated points.

Shinn was fighting alongside several GOUFs, and the Impulse, when out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar Mobile Suit flying right at him

"So you're finally here."

The Freedom responded with its usual full burst. However, instead of targeting Shinn all of the GOUFs had they're arms blown off. Impulse also lost one of its arms. Before more damage could be inflicted. Shinn charged the Freedom and drew his antiship sword. The Freedom drew its double beam sabers and threw up a defensive stance. Before the two titans could come to blows, the two Nazca class ships activated their GUNGNIR systems.

In the last two years ZAFT had improved upon their GUNGNIR technology. Instead of emitting their electromagnetic field in a huge radius, it could now be emitted in a large cone-like 45 degree firing angle.

As the two ships opened fire, every single remaining Alliance Mobile Suit and Ship in the area that Shinn was fighting powered down. That is except for all of the Orb forces.

Shinn and the Freedom didn't seem to notice or care that the Alliance had been taken out of the battle. With a yell, Shinn struck at the Freedom with his sword. The rogue mobile suit blocked this strike with its shield, and jabbed at Shinn with its dual beam sabers. Quickly projecting the Wings of Light, Shinn blocked the incoming strike. He shrugged the sabers off and slashed at the Freedom with the Destiny's Wings.

"Bastard! You always get in the way every time!"

The Freedom's pilot blocked Shinn's strike with his beam shield before responding.

"I have to. The madness of battle is all consuming. Everyone will just kill each other until there's nothing left!" Shinn lashed out with a kick connected solidly with his opponent's head. The Freedom was pushed back, and Shinn flew straight at it hoping for a quick kill. The pilot was no slouch though, he nimbly dodged aside as Shinn flew past, and fired off a quick shot with his rifle, which Shinn dodged.

"What gives you the right to decide that?

"Look around you! Everyone is killing each other! Will that lead to peace?"

"It's better than walking on to a battle field, preaching high ideals and passing judgment on everyone, like you're better than everyone!"

Shinn was getting tired of this guy. He threw his beam boomerang, and deployed his beam cannon. His opponent batted the boomerang away and shot it with his beam rifle. Shinn opened fire with his beam cannon in hopes that he would catch his opponent off guard. Predictably enough it didn't work. He cursed and charged again.

"I'm not. But I know the horrors of war. I fought my best friend, and killed his friend. And he killed mine. We almost killed each other!"

Shinn and his opponent crossed blades again.

"Don't act like you're so special. Everyone has hardships! You've let your petty idealism blind you! Do you think disabling all of your enemies will do anything? Do you think talking to battle crazed soldiers will do anything?"

"We have to try. We can't let all these people die. Where's the sense in that?"

"Sense? Sense?" Shinn gave off a dark laugh filled with bitterness. "There's no sense in war you fool! War is madness. You're a bigger fool than Athha."

"Don't talk about her like that. A monster like you has no right!" Suddenly the Freedom's movements became faster more precise. Before Shinn could react it had lobbed off the hand holding the sword and sliced the weapon in two. The pilot executed a series of quick stabs and slices. Shinn barely managed to block and dodge most of them but the strikes were quick, and his mobile suit was nicked in several places, including the V-fin.

"Shinn!" Out of the corner of his eye, Shinn could see Blast Impulse deploying its weapons.

"Luna don't!" Lunamaria let off a full burst. The Freedom kicked Shinn aside and dodged the attack. It pulled out it's Beam Rifle, and fired off five shots in rapid succession. All of Impulse's weapons and remaining arms were destroyed.

"Luna are you ok!"

"I'm fine." The legendary mobile suit fired off another blast. Lunamaria tried to dodge it, but she wasn't successful. This time the chest flyer was exploded.

"Luna!" The remainder of the leg flyer phase shifted down, and simply floated there completely motionless. That was it. Shinn was mad now. That bastard was going down. Suddenly it happened again. His head cleared up. Everything around him seemed to slow down. He grinned. Let's see that guy beat him now.

Shinn closed the gap between his opponent and himself. He fired off a blast from his remaining palm cannon, and slashed at his opponent with the Destiny's Wings.

"Bastard! If she's hurt, I will gut you!"

"Look! See this is what happens when you kill needlessly. You just continue the cycle onwards and onwards."

"You fool! The cycle has been continuing ever since the cavemen picked up weapons and started killing each other. It'll never stop. People will always suffer. I can't stop it, but you can protect what's precious to me."

Shinn capitalized his point by deploying his beam and palm cannons and opening fire upon the Freedom.

The pilot chose to deploy his own beam shield. As he took refuge against the would-be withering assault of beam weapons, he returned fire with is own cannons and rifle.

Shinn nudged his control sticks and pressed on the foot pedals, and managed to dodge his opponent's return fire. Instead of blocking the Freedom dodged and closed to melee range again. Again Shinn lashed out with the Wings of Light. His plucky opponent blocked the wings with is own sabers, and quickly floated up before planted both of Freedom's feet on the Destiny and activating his thrusters.

Shinn was thrown backwards by the force, and impacted against an inert Drake Class. Fortunately his seat restraints prevented him from being thrown around too much. He barely had time to block a double beam saber strike from the Freedom, as it had closed in on him again.

The situation in the Godwanna's war room was one of confusion.

"What the hell happened! Why was the GUNGNIR only able to disable the Alliance forces?"

"An equipment failure perhaps?"

"No ma'am, the Jamitov reports that all of their systems are in perfect order."

"What happened then?"

"Look, we shouldn't concern ourselves with this. All of the Alliances ships have been disabled. The remaining Alliance Mobile Suits are being mopped up as we speak. We should move forward, remove these pests from the battlefield, and assault the moon base."

All of the other officers acquiesced. Seconds later the ZAFT fleet lumbered forward.

Things were not going Shinn's way. He taken damage from the Freedom, and he had lost some of his weapons. His opponent was keeping up with him, and at times out fighting him. Only his determination to see the Freedom turned into burning wreckage was keeping him in the game.

He dodged a stab and lashed out with one of the Destiny's Wings. This time he caught the pilot off guard and cut off one of the Freedom's hands. Pressing his momentary advantage slashed with his Wings. In his fit of rage he grabbed a disabled Windam and began to viciously bludgeon his foe with it.

"How can you protect when you're like this? You're a monster. You have no regard for human life."

"Wrong! My friends aboard the Minerva, my fellow pilots, the people of PLANT. I protect them! And if I have to kill everyone who opposes me to do it then so it shall be!"

The Freedom struck with its remaining saber, and sliced the leg off of the Windam. The motionless suit drifted away.

"How can you say that? Everyone has a right to life. If you brazenly take lives then you're no better than those that would see the world burned to ash!"

Shinn fired a blast from his palm cannon, which the Freedom blocked.

"Better? Perhaps I'm not. But my path is clear, if left alive my enemies will continue to come back. Every time they do someone precious dies. I'm an embodiment of that principle. If you had killed me then your precious Athha might still be alive!"

"I can't trade one life for another."

Shinn lashed out with a kick.

"Why not? I'm monster right? I kill all of those you protect, so why can't you?

"Even so! You're a person. You can always change. You can become a better person. I can't take that away."

The Freedom lashed out with the edge of its beam shield. Shinn blocked the strike with one of his Wings, but the quick thinking pilot slid the shield off, in what appeared to be an attempt to cut into the Destiny's cockpit. Shinn moved the other block. Too late he realized his mistake, when that Wing was sheared off. He scowled.

"Become better? You mean like you? Never. If I don't kill, my enemies will always return. Maybe I'll beat them, but one day I won't be fast enough, or aware enough, and someone will die."

"You can't protect if you continue to kill! Your methods pervert your own goals!"

"Do they? No matter what, no matter how hard you try. No matter how noble your goals, you will always hurt someone, even if you succeed, and especially when you fail!"

"What?"

Shinn continued, "If this is the case, then why bother with the moral high ground? Why not become a monster? If in the end my friends can live, if the innocent and the powerless are safe, then I will gladly continue to walk this path."

"No you're wrong!" The pilot raised the Freedom's beam saber, in an attempt to execute a powerful overhead slash. Shinn intercepted the Freedom's forearm with his own. He pushed the arm out of the way and cut it off at the elbow joint with the Destiny's remaining Wing.

"Am I? The Athhas wanted to make a perfect country where everyone would be happy. Where there was no persecution. It worked, but they didn't have the power to back their words up! They were weak, and they died. The Alliance wanted Orb's mass driver, the Alliance had the power, and the Alliance won. My family died that day, because Orb was weak, because I was weak. The Athhas didn't want to kill anyone. The Alliance only wanted the Mass Driver. But my family still died. They were casualties of greed. Of those who had power, but abused it to take what they want."

"You're no different!"

"Am I? My intention is to protect. My friends' lives are their own. I can't allow that to be taken from them. That is the difference! That is why I took hold of this power "

Any further debate was interrupted by a large shadow passing over the two combatants.

"What the?"

The Godwanna and the rest of ZAFT's forces had arrived. They were heading straight for the Archangel and the rest of its allies.

"No! Archangel!" The Freedom broke off and headed straight for the closest ZAFT ship, only to be blocked by the Destiny.

"Forgetting something?"

"Get out of my way!"

Shinn gave off a bitter laugh. "No. You started this fight. So finish it!"

As the two combatants renewed their deadly dance, the Minerva was deploying her Positron Cannon. The massive weapon charged itself up, and unleashed a deadly blast of antimatter. An Izumo Class was caught in the blast and exploded.

The mobile suits that had come with the fleet swarmed over their enemy, joined by the other ZAFT MS that had been fighting the Murasames. Another Izumo class was destroyed within another minute.

The officers aboard the Godwanna ordered 10 Nazca classes to destroy the Archangel.

"Remind them to use their Rail cannons. That ship has laminated armour. Beam Weapons will have a tough time getting through.

A team of GOUFs flew past the Eternal, strafing the pink carrier and destroying numerous weapon emplacements. Several of the ship's engines were destroyed. It began to list to the port side. Their job completed, the GOUFs broke off. Several Gunner ZAKUs targeted the listing ship, and opened fire with their cannons. The hull began to buckle, and finally was breached. The atmosphere inside was instantly, the entire crew was flash fried. The ship continued to list.

"Lacus no!"

With his opponent giving him a temporary opening, Shinn rushed the Freedom and pushed it into a Nelson Class. He wrapped the Destiny's remaining hand around the Freedom's neck and blasted it off with his palm cannon. With his foe robbed of most of his sensors, he extended his Wing and cut the mobile suit in half lengthwise.

The resulting explosion consumed the Nelson Class, and threw Shinn backwards over a hundred meters.

He shook his head in disbelief. He had done it. He quickly assessed the battle. It looked like the Archangel and the rest of its forces were withdrawing. It appeared that ZAFT was content with letting them leave, as the massive fleet was continuing on to the base.

"Sir, we are within range of the moon base."

"Good, inform the Behemoth that it may begin its firing sequence."

Talia looked at the Minerva's view screen. ZAFT was using the Behemoth? Well, she knew that this battle was over then.

"Sir, we're receiving a transmission from the Alliance base."

"And?"

"They're surrendering sir!"

A loud cheer went up in the Godwanna's war room.

"Everyone calm down! It's not over yet. Inform the Behemoth to abort the firing sequence. Acknowledge their surrender. And send a message to the Supreme Council, this matter is in their hands now."

"Yes ma'am!"

A message flashed itself over the Destiny's communication screen. Shinn deigned to give it a cursory glance, before diverting his full attention back to the task at hand. According to his sensors he should be right on top of the remains of the Impulse. He glanced around. He saw the leg flyer, and the now separated core splendor drifting off to his right.

Using his apogee motors he moved closer to the wrecked mobile suit. He looked at the cockpit, almost afraid at what he might find. Luna looked like fine. There wasn't any blood floating around the cockpit. Slightly relieved, Shinn tried to open a channel to the core splendor.

No response. Frustrated he tried again. Still no response. He was beginning to get worried. He couldn't leave the Destiny's cockpit because he didn't have any way to maneuver around in zero-g. Sighing he brought the Destiny as close as he could, and opened the cockpit hatch. Using the massive mobile suit's hand he reached out and pinched the core splendors canopy glass. It easily shattered. Taking a hold of the craft he brought it to within half a meter of his open cockpit. Undoing his own restraints, he reached out and did the same to Luna. Carefully pulling her out, he settled back down into his seat. Next he released the core splendor, and re-sealed the Destiny's cockpit.

"Luna are you ok!"

She slowly opened her eyes, "Shinn? Shinn!" Weakly she threw her arms around him. Sorry, the core splendor was spinning too much, I was getting dizzy so I closed my eyes."

"It's all right."

"Did we win?"

"Yeah, it's over." Shinn replayed the message he received for her. She smiled.

"What about the Freedom?"

"Dead."

Shinn hit some buttons on his panel, readying the Destiny to return to the Minerva. He stopped when Luna put her hand over his.

"Can we wait just for a minute?"

He nodded.

Lunamaria removed her helmet, and motioned for Shinn to follow suit. He complied.

"Shinn Asuka you had me worried."

"Worried? What about me?" he replied indignantly.

"What about you?"

"I thought you were dead."

"Sorry, I thought he was going to kill you. I couldn't just stand there."

"I know. Sorry for yelling."

"Sorry, for scaring you."

He hugged her, "It's ok. In a way I'm almost glad. If I hadn't thought your life was in danger, he would've beaten me in the end."

"That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." She gave him a quick peck on the check. As she was withdrawing, Lunamaria felt Shinn's hand on the back of her head, stopping her.

"Shinn is something wrong?"

"No." With that he closed the distance, and kissed her on the lips. He kept contact for 10 seconds before pulling away, slightly embarrassed.

"That was unexpected."

"Oh." Shinn sounded dejected.

"But not unwelcome. Jeez you jump to conclusions so quickly."

"Oh ok."

"That's all you have to say?"

"All I can think of," he said, shrugging.

"You know that we can't really take that back."

"I know. But that doesn't matter. I've wanted to do that for a long time."

"So now what?"

"I don't know about you but I'm hungry. I say we go back to the Minerva, and just figure out where we stand now."

She smiled, "Sounds good."

He nodded. As the Destiny Gundam flew back to the Minerva, Shinn pondered. The war was over now. He had succeeded in protecting PLANT. He had a bright future ahead of him. He had someone to share it with. He looked at Luna who smiled at him. Shinn returned the smile. He wasn't deluded enough to think that this peace would endure forever. In the future there would probably be more enemies. The Archangel was still out there, he didn't know what they were planning, but he sincerely hoped that he wouldn't have to fight them again.

Shinn shook his head. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about things that weren't in his control. He looked at Luna again. Yeah, there were definitely more important things to think about at the moment.

Author's Notes:

Well it's done, my first rewrite. Yay! And the rewrite is 7 pages longer than the original. More Yay! Well, you've reached the end, so I might as well make a few things clear. To all the Lacus fans, yep she's dead. As to why, well I never really liked her at all. She was poorly developed and too Mary Suish for my liking. As for Jesus Jr. Yamato, he's obviously dead, as well. I have my own issues with him, among them being too perfect, acting like a super hero in a "realistic" war show, being a flat character and stealing scene time from the new main characters. And I truly hope that he will die in Destiny, or at least suffer some kind of injury that will render him unable to pilot anymore. Gundam Seed is supposedly the new UC (and I shudder at that). I really don't want Kira jumping into every series pulling off a Grey Stoke, or Grandpa Umon. Bonus points to the first person that actually knows who these two are. Honestly, Amuro never did it to Camille, and Camille never did it to Judau. They had their time to shine and moved aside for the new main characters. Bah, I blame Fukuda.

On another note, the Shinn portrayed here is how I hope he'll turn out. Yeah, he's kind of a monster but he has his reasons, which I hope I've made clear. I'm half expecting Fukuda to drop the ball though. I hope I'm wrong. Obviously, I like Shinn, I like him more than Kira, who at best I'm neutral towards. I don't much care for Shinn's attitude problem, but I love everything else about him. He was a nice change from Kira, a half throwback to the old UC characters who didn't give a crap about killing their enemies, because it was war.

I took a few liberties with the Destiny Gundam as well. I'm not really sure if it does possess the Wings of Light, but hey with Fukuda it's really freaking likely. I took a liberty with the appearance of the GELGOOG as well, but hey I thought that with ZAKUs, GOUFs, and the appearance of a Dom-like suit in the third opening, anything was possible.

With that said, I had fun rewriting this story. Hope that everyone actually liked it. Well if you did leave a review. If you hated it then feel free to tell me so.


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